Originally, I was going to say that Gritch did exorcise at least one or two spookies stuck inside Navarre, but then I thought about it some more, and I actually somewhat like the notion that Gritch has a vague sense of guilt over the respect and even kinda loyalty which Navarre shows him. Gritch never actually did much to earn it. So, I'm going with the story that Gritch found Navarre, and maybe Navarre bore telltale signs that he'd been possessed, but Gritch performed no exorcisms.

Maybe found the kid, half dead, delirious with fever and oh!, what do you know -- inhabited by some lost souls. So I took the time to get them out before moving on -- nothing I could really do for the infection, he'd either die or not and that was on him, at least I cleared up the one problem. And all he remembers is me walking away while he maybe dies having no notion that I helped out. And Gritch wanders by a day or two later and gets the credit.

Hmmm. Could be interesting. I'm curious what cwilbur thinks of this idea, too. I think my biggest questions here revolve around how, if at all, this changes Gritch and Spector's relationship, and whether Spector cares at all about this piece of backstory (which is kinda the same question, I guess). Because if Spector does care, would he resent Gritch for getting the credit? Does he feel more dislike towards Navarre as a result, or does he just plain not care?

Building off my ideas in the other thread, if Spector exorcises spookies while Gritch kills them, then maybe Spector uses certain tools and accoutrement for his operations, which differentiate them from what Gritch does. So when Navarre woke up, maybe some detritus of Spector's exorcism process was around Navarre, and Navarre took to keeping it with him as some sort of talisman, believing that it would help keep him safe, or something like that. Hell, maybe Spector exorcised the spookies directly INTO an object, which is what Navarre carries around. All of which means that there is a direct piece of physical evidence which Gritch knows did not come from himself, Navarre believes came from Gritch, and Spector would recognize if he saw it. Yes? No?

Sure. And remember, we're not members of rich, monolithic, opposing traditions. I imagine we just found we had a knack for these kinds of things. It seems weird to Spector to kill the souls when you can just redirect them and maybe even help them find peace or joy, I mean, they're just folks(!) -- while Gritch seems to think of them much more as other.

Oh yeah, absolutely. We just see the Maelstrom (and its constituents) differently. Whereas you see them as just folks, Gritch, I think, sees them as the enemy, something to be avoided, and eliminated. It's his old military style of thinking, creeping into his way of dealing with the Maelstrom. So yeah, it's not like we're dogmatically opposed. I particularly think, though, this leads to that interesting relationship of (for Gritch at least) thinking the other one is both wrong, and is fascinating in his viewpoint.

Dolls of a sort. I figure if one of the wandering souls is living where it shouldn't, it's most likely confused and wants to be a physical person again. So, it's tough to lure the damn things out of a body unless you have some other suitable replacement with which to tempt them. Sometimes that's maybe a little doll made of wax mixed with blood and spit and shit adorned with a bit of human hair -- those are easy to come up with. But for some reason, it works better when you use a fancy china doll from Before -- but where the fuck do you find one of those?

It's clear that possessing souls have the ability to mess with a person or animal. But Spector has observed hints that suggest that the souls placed in inanimate objects have ways of manipulating those things too. This is a current area of interest for Spector.